HUNTING IN ILLINOIS Trappers net 2,000 otters during season

SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Illinois trappers captured about 2,000 river otters during the first otter-hunting season in decades, hundreds more than expected, state officials said.

Bob Bluett, a biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, attributes the larger-than-predicted numbers to high fur prices, The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reports. He had expected a harvest between 1,200 and 1,800 animals during the roughly 5-month season, which began last November.

"The difference was fur prices were up," he said. "More people were trapping and there was more opportunity to catch otters."

Each river otter pelt brought in about $73.

The 2012-2013 season marked the first time since 1929 that Illinois hunters could trap the animals, which are part of the weasel family. River otters were once so rare in the state that authorities believed there were less than 100 of them in Illinois before 1990.

But their numbers rebounded. By 2009, the population was pegged at about 11,000.

State officials said the most recent season's hunt culled about 13 percent of the population.